As everyone this morning, I heard the news, via social networks. As millions of fans all over the world last week, I went to buy the vinyl copy of 26th album of one of my favorite artists. Blackstar. This brand new album, coupled with his discretion, took everyone aghast, making his departure all the most… surprising…

David Bowie went back to the stars, where he always belonged…

Normally, I don’t react on the internet to people passing away. In my mind, death is unfair, no matter the person. But as I don’t know famous singers, actors or whatever on a personal level, like family or friends, I can’t rely on the death and share my pain.

David Bowie is an all different case. Of course, I didn’t know him on a personal level, but I almost spent 3 years with him. Every day, as I was writing my novel Sol Sunburst, he was with me with his songs, pictures, music… all along. For 3 years, his work, life and songs for 1969 to 1974 as well as his character Ziggy Stardust helped me shape my own characters, Sol Sunburst, Angela, the Preacher…

5 years of his life and 15 songs forged that book. Without David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust, there wouldn’t be any Sol Sunburst…

So I guess, even if sounds a bit weird or lame, “Thank you Mr Jones” would never be more appropriate on this day…

David Bowie was litterally a source of inspiration, and no doubt he’ll always be till the end of my own life, one way or the other. It is with deep sadness that I heard of his departure, after a long, quiet fight against a cancer… My thoughts are with his family and friends, as well as with people who, like me, were moved by his music…

The multi-faced artist leave behind a discography richer than any other musician would dream of, along with movies, paintings… We took comfort in knowing that no cancer will ever take away what he left us with…

Pick a song among all he made wasn’t easy. Many will choose to share his most known. As for me, I picked The Width of a Circle… It built my 10th chapter and follows the steps of the Street Preacher, who is just another incarnation of Bowie in Sol Sunburst. While listening to Blackstar and its religious themes, in a way, I was right to think of him in this role too…

As you may or may not know, fifty years ago David Bowie released his first record. To commemorate this life achievement, a new best-of album Nothing has Changed just has been released. Fifty years, that’s impressive! From the generation that pretty much invented rock, there are not many important characters left and I’m pretty sure over the years to come, this kind of 50-year albums will be few. Pick whatever name you want from the 90’s or 00’s, and look at if they are still there now…

Love the cover by the way

Anyway, not the point. The point is David Bowie is releasing a new album! Full with classics, mostly from the 70’s, Nothing has changed is the perfect occasion for the newest generation to get to know the music of a man who litteraly changed the face of rock with his avatar Ziggy Stardust. It’s the occasion to see (well, listen to) the evolution of his own style, how he chose to redefine himself over 5 decades to push the music forward. On the downside, from what I gathered on the vinyl tracklist, songs are not sorted chronologically… maybe a choice, maybe not, those who are not familiar with the evolution of Bowie’s style, it might be surprising to jump from a genre to another.

For those who already know the drill, a best-of album is always the occasion to get back into the music whitout looking for 10 different albums to listen to a medley. But let’s face the reality: if you’re like me, you don’t need this “new album”, you already have the vinyls or CDs and you already know Let’s Dance, Ziggy Stardust, Golden years…

But there is another way to “listen” to a best-of album of David Bowie! And this way, my fellow Bowie fan, is Sol Sunburst! Indeed, Sol Sunburst is a sci-fi novel loosely based on David Bowie’s songs from ’69 to ’74. A brand new way to rediscover songs you already know mixed into an original ecolo-rock story.

2169. War, climate change and animal extinctions will soon overwhelm an Earth ravaged by human greed and neglect. In a last desperate attempt to save endangered species from extinction, humans combine animal genes with human DNA to create animoids – a half-human, half-animal breed.

While the rest of the world is pinning its hopes on Major Tom and his colonisation of Mars, the Diamond Dogs – an animoid eco-terrorist group – is busy trying to save the planet from imminent destruction.

Meanwhile, Sol Sunburst, a rock star whose prophetic songs and charm have turned him into a new messiah, is predicting an Apocalypse in five years. But this is all too soon for Angela, a Diamond Dogs rookie who is on a mission to transform this condemned world…

2169. War, climate change and animal extinctions will soon overwhelm an Earth ravaged by human greed and neglect. In a last desperate attempt to save endangered species from extinction, humans combine animal genes with human DNA to create animoids – a half-human, half-animal breed.

While the rest of the world is pinning its hopes on Major Tom and his colonisation of Mars, the Diamond Dogs – an animoid eco-terrorist group – is busy trying to save the planet from imminent destruction.

Meanwhile, Sol Sunburst, a rock star whose prophetic songs and charm have turned him into a new messiah, is predicting an Apocalypse in five years. But this is all too soon for Angela, a Diamond Dogs rookie who is on a mission to transform this condemned world…

You can now purchase Sol Sunburst on Amazon (.mobi) or on Kobo (.epub)!

As you might know, Sol Sunburst will be hitting the major digital platforms next Tuesday.

Being an indie author implies that you do most the marketing stuff by yourself, hoping that, somehow, you’ll grab a reader at the corner of a post, on the edge of a wittyful tweet or thanks to beautiful pictures of your ebook cover.

One of the most common things to share the love around you upcoming novel is to provide a free sample. Some piece of your text that would give a peak of what to expect. So I choose to diffuse the chapter 2 of my novel.

‘Why 2? Why not 1?’ would you ask. Mainly because this chapter 2 is actually the first one I wrote, the one that introduces the main character Angela, as well as Sol Sunburst and the actual state of the Earth in 2169. In other words, the best entry point for anyone who doesn’t know about Sol Sunburst but wishes to discover it.

Angela is the main protagonist of Sol Sunburst. She’s a young woman, full of ideals, strong-willed and passionnate.

She’s a Diamond Dogs rookie who jumped into the cause because she thinks Earth is not to be abandonned, that it can still be saved. Her convictions are strongly opposed to the education she had received, and even if she’s the sister of the very famous Major Tom, she doesn’t share any of his love for space or destructive progress.

She has a cat, likes to be almost naked when she’s alone in her apartment, loves red wine mixed with magic pills and music. Especially Sol Sunburst’s.

Her father is from formely known as South America, so she bears on her beautiful face Latine origins. Her olive skin and bright blue eyes draw attention of men but she only has her eye on Sol Sunburst, the rock star.

Here is the first concept from Lys Lydia for Angela as she would appear on the cover.

After some discussions, we landed on another version that corresponds much more to the woman described in the book, physically as well as mentally (“strong” and “weak” as the same time for instance). I hope you can see the duality of her in the picture. In my opinion, she’s perfect!